#MLK: Today’s Tackiest Social Media Brand Fails

We all know it's incredibly crass to use a national day of mourning to promote your brand. But still, every year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Pearl Harbor Day and Sept. 11, companies do it anyway.

We understand the temptation. If your tweet includes the #MLK hashtag, chances are it's going to be seen and even retweeted many more times than a regular missive promoting toilet paper or Oreos.

To be fair, some brands may feel a social responsibility to honor and recognize the day. This, for example, is a great way to do it:

https://twitter.com/AARP/status/425252639417569280

Moving, respectful, even educational.

But not everyone can be as classy as the AARP. There are tons of social media editors out there who still don't understand that directly comparing the legacy of Martin Luther King to their product is tacky beyond belief. So now, for your MLK Day entertainment, here are the most egregious offenders.

We'll be updating this list all day, so send the best/worst tweets and Facebook posts you find to mmulshine@observer.com.

UPDATE: We have a winner for crappiest Martin Luther King Day social media promo of 2014:

https://twitter.com/Pornhub/status/425363419147927552

Actually painful.

Here's our extensive list of runners up:

https://twitter.com/7Hens/status/425389817112068098

Be happy MLK fought so hard for equality because otherwise you'd have to pay for your fries.

https://twitter.com/QuadChat/status/425382206278615040

OMG like MLK totally would have loved texting! Also, isn't "can't" a typo? Good work, everyone.